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Benex, BECS Plead Not Guilty
To Charges in Laundering Case

a Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter

Updated Oct. 29, 1999 1:02 a.m. ET

NEW YORK -- Two corporations indicted for illegally transmitting $7 billion in Russian funds through the Bank of New York Co. pleaded not guilty in federal court here. Benex International Co. and BECS International PLC, were the only defendants of six who entered pleas.

T. Barry Kingham, an attorney for Benex and BECS, also represents defendants Peter Berlin and his wife Lucy Edwards, who live in London and didn't appear at the hearing. A defendant must enter a plea in person and Mr. Kingham said federal prosecutors hadn't...